Cream Puff Swans
Makes 15-20 Swans
Ingredients
For Dough
- 1 cup water
- 1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter
- ½ tsp sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 5 large eggs
For Assembly
- whipped cream (homemade or store-bought)
How-to
Make Dough, Pipe & Bake
- Preheat oven to 400°
- In a medium saucepan combine the water, butter, sugar and salt and bring to a rolling boil
- Remove from heat and add stir in flour, mixing until a ball forms
- Transfer the dough to a mixer and beat on medium-low speed until cool, about 5 minutes
- With the mixer on, add one egg at a time, waiting to add the next until the last is fully incorporated into batter. Beat mixture until shiny and smooth
- Transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a star tip. Fill pastry bag half-full with the dough
- Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper
- For the bodies, pipe 15-20 mounds of dough, about 3" in diameter, leaving ample space in between (about 2" — the bodies will puff and get bigger in the oven)
- For the heads, pipe a small mound of dough, then continue in an "S" shape, ending the point with another small mound of dough
- Bake pastries for about 30 minutes or until golden-brown. Remove the tray of "heads" from the oven
- Poke small holes in the bottoms of the "bodies." Turn the oven off, but leave the bodies inside the cooling oven to dry out, about 20 minutes
To Assemble
- Remove the cooled bottoms from the oven and slice in half like a burger bun
- Take the top piece and slice in half down the middle, lengthwise (these will form the "wings")
- Fill the bottoms with whipped cream, add on "head" in the middle, propped upright
- Place the "wings" on either side of the "head"
- Serve immediately. These look gorgeous on a mirror to give the elusion of "swimming." If making ahead, make all components, then assemble right before serving